Lions Dominate Day One of AMCC Men's Swimming and Diving Championships

GROVE CITY, Pa. – Dan Simon (Harrison City, PA/Penn Trafford) won his third individual title in the 50 freestyle to help the Penn State Behrend men's swimming and diving team to first place after day one of competition at the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) Championships.

The Lions won every swimming event on the night in the Thursday night finals to take a 59 point lead over Pitt-Bradford with a score of 101. Penn State Altoona is in third with 37 points and Cabrini is fourth with 29.

Simon won gold for a third time and missed the school and AMCC records by .02 seconds, winning in 21.05 in the 50 free.  The senior joined Nick Roth (Pittsburgh, PA/Baldwin), Matt Myers (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley) and Ty Elder (Brentwood, CA/Heritage) for a first-place finish in the 200 free relay with a time of 1:27.30, good enough for fifth overall.

Simon also broke the pool record in the lead-off 50 backstroke in a time of 23.68 to finish in 49.48 for the first leg of the 400 medley relay. His final time of 49.48 was also a pool, invitational and AMCC meet record. Simon was helped Victor Nguyen (San Jose, CA/Evergreen Valley), Roth and Elder for a final time of 3:28.57 to take second in the overall meet.  The foursome shaved nearly eight seconds off their preliminary time of 3:36.31.

Roth repeats as the 500 freestyle champion. He dropped 2.2 seconds from the preliminaries to end in 4:45.53 for the win. His time was good for third overall, while Ryan Mitcheltree (Moon Township, PA/Moon) took second in the conference with a time of 4:54.46 (11^th overall).

Kost was victorious in the 200 IM for Behrend. He touched first in 1:54.88 in the AMCC and was second overall. Ryan Esley (Hermitage, PA/Hickory) placed third in the conference in 2:05.67 in same event.

The Lions return to the pool tomorrow for day two of the AMCC Championships. Preliminaries begin at 10 a.m. with finals starting at 6 p.m.